A Reader Writes to the S.F. Chronicle

Note: I have edited the following letter, striking through some of the writer's original words, replacing them with words in bold. I reject the sentiments in the edited letter as I reject the sentiments in the original letter. I have made these changes only to point out the writer's logical errors and odious prejudices

EMOTIONAL MARKETS
Editor -- "Emotions send stocks tumbling down" (July 20) is a headline I find rather amusing. Perhaps you can call waking up an "emotion."

The discovery that you are being robbed is certainly an emotional experience, but what you do about it is plain common sense. You take precautions against other robbers.

The realization that the heads of some giant corporations some Black people have neither honesty nor integrity leads to the obvious corollary: There is no way to be sure that all corporations Black people aren't equally crooked.

Selling off stockAvoiding Black people is the natural, practical reaction.

BARBARA RASMUSSEN
Berkeley

I doubt very much that the Chronicle would publish the above letter with its noxious references to "Black people" (at least I hope they wouldn't). But why should they publish a letter that stereotypes all people of a particular professional status?

UPDATE: There was another equally silly letter in today's paper. My neighbor Bill Quick turned it into origami in more or less the same way I would have.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 23, 2002 02:58 PM